The exocyst subunit CsExo70B promotes both fruit length and disease resistance via regulating receptor kinase abundance at plasma membrane in cucumber

Abstract

Plant defence against pathogens generally occurs at the expense of growth and yield. Uncoupling the inverse relationship between growth and defence is of great importance for crop breeding, while the underlying genes and regulatory mechanisms remain largely elusive. The exocytosis complex was shown to play an important role in the trafficking of receptor kinases (RKs) to the plasma membrane (PM). Here, we found a Cucumis sativus exocytosis subunit Exo70B (CsExo70B) regulates the abundance of both development and defence RKs at the PM to promote fruit elongation and disease resistance in cucumber. Knockout of CsExo70B resulted in shorter fruit and susceptibility to pathogens. Mechanistically, CsExo70B associates with the developmental RK CsERECTA, which promotes fruit longitudinal growth in cucumber, and contributes to its accumulation at the PM. On the other side, CsExo70B confers to the spectrum resistance to pathogens in cucumber via a similar regulatory module of defence RKs. Moreover, CsExo70B overexpression lines showed an increased fruit yield as well as disease resistance. Collectively, our work reveals a regulatory mechanism that CsExo70B promotes both fruit elongation and disease resistance by maintaining appropriate RK levels at the PM and thus provides a possible strategy for superior cucumber breeding with high yield and robust pathogen resistance.

Keywords: Exo70B; cucumber; disease resistance; fruit length; receptor kinases.